Firefly Universe Online is an upcoming MMO set in the Firefly universe. You know, that vaguely sci-fi show that got a few episodes and was canceled. No, the other one. The other other one, with the movie. Yeah. Anyhow, the Twitter and Facebook pages for Firefly Universe Online went dark without explanation, leaving gamers in the lurch. Now, DarkCryo Entertainment Producer Craig Redl explains what happened. The simple answer? Community building. Ten Ton Hammer has the story.

Making an MMO for a series that didn’t even get a single season, and has been off the air for years is probably not something that most companies would do. Then again, the license must have been cheap.

I spent a moment thinking about what there is in Firefly that would make it a good setting for an MMO. Exciting space combat? Nope. Ships are mostly unarmed.

A rich setting? Not really, the series didn’t even answer if the universe has FTL spaceships.

Memorable characters for players to encounter? Not so many, the series was tightly focused around the crew of one ship, and any others mostly got gunned down.

Good writing? Well, some might say so, but an MMO isn’t going to be written by the same folks who did the show.

A rich plotline? Not so much, what with being an episodic show that relied on a mystery girl for its plot arc, and then got canceled and resolved in the movie.